


TİCK

by ANONiM0USE (orphan_account)



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Women, Dark Dipper Pines, Dream Demon, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Multi, Psychic Abilities, Soul Bond, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-24 05:06:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10734723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/ANONiM0USE
Summary: Some stories never die.And some questions need to be answered.-What exactly is Bill Cipher?What originally attracted him to the Pines?And more importantly, why is he back four years after the fact to demand their help?





	1. PSUEDO-GIRL

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will Cipher in her first appearance is angry and reminiscing.

It never aged in Gravity Falls, Oregon.   
Only the civilian population did.   
And she had long since stopped being civil.   
She was 17 years old and far too weary of this world.

 _ ~~I~~_ _ ~~t sickened her~~_.

Maybe it was Bill or maybe the fact that she was losing her friends - _her brother_ \- to the Journals.   
Maybe it was because right then, she was being frogmarched to her death.   
Not her death, oh no, it was her resurrection.   
So these heretics preached.   
She was Weird.   
She was Cipher.   
And she had a plan. 


	2. FALSE BOY

He really, really, really didn't want to go to Gravity Falls. It had been a fun trip when he was twelve and had a crush on Wendy but he was seventeen and she had married some gothic schmuck with accountant parents. And he wasn't sure but sometimes he got the distinct sense that whatever had happened to his Grunkles Stan and Ford when they were younger wasn't quite buried for good. _And_  he was pretty sure that his Ford had been lying when he said that he had no idea how a rift had been formed again. But after Weirdmaggedon, he didn't want to rock the boat. Unfortunately, that was all Mabel did. His fun-loving sister was no longer wearing braces and had - _finally_  - outgrown her boy craze. She was still the resident overbearing optimist but now there was a steel to her and an empathy that didn't just wear her heart on its sleeve - it bedazzled it. And once she had heard that their Grunkles were back from their latest monster-hunting jaunt, it would take Bill Cipher himself to try to stop her. He snorted aloud, prompting his parents to give him a strange look as Mabel rolled her eyes. She knew what he was thinking about. A couple summers ago, they had gotten a bit of a fright when someone had decided to recreate Weirdmaggedon themselves. And resummon the dream demon. Of course, a bit of salt and an extra helping of Mabel's grappling hook and the town was safe. "Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!" Picking up the suitcases, he follows after his sister into the woods. Only to drop those suitcases as his Grunkles swarmed him with laughter and raucous hugs. He didn't know why but he really, really didn't trust Ford. And he still really, really, really didn't want to be in Gravity Falls.


	3. PUT-ON PRETENDER

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mabel is more than just a smile. The girl's gotta have a couple of secrets to hide, right?

" ~~ _I can see it in your eyes. Mason, what's got you so panicked_~~?"

She couldn't say that. His first name was the ultimate red flag and he'd shut down all communication. So instead she promised to show him her secret, in the hopes that the promise of a new mystery would be enough to shift his focus. Even now, she could see his shoulders inching into his ears and the firey red of his neck. He was freaking out and it was starting to choke her. When they were younger, she had always rallied against his pessimistic nature and hadn't even begun to understand why she always knew what everyone else felt. She had tried to put herself first, look out for number one, but that made things worse. Like she was drowning and drowning and drowning. Especially after she had been trapped in that Dreamscape. She knew the reality out there was tragic and Dipper needed her and she could feel his pain and his panic but she actually felt _happy_ \- like she mattered - and she just couldn't let that go. But she had found a book. A _fourth_  Journal. It was more like a diary than a scouting book and already she knew that if she had shown Dipper he wouldn't have been able to hide it from Ford. The first page was a happily drawn girl with a speech bubble in code, DAO NBOCT TDREUFSGT GHRIAJVKILTMY FNAOLPLQS.

~~_do not trust gravity falls_~~  

But it steadily grew into a quasi black book explaining the people of their town and even more secrets. And she hadn't even finished the first chapter yet but already she couldn't look at Gideon the same way ever again. His father had sold his ability to age to some kind of charisma demon named Kiä. And he'd never age past twenty. Already he was supposed to be at least thirty but his age and memory kept winding down. It drove his mother insane. But worse was finding out about her own developing powers. She didn't know if Dipper had noticed - back in California, they barely had anytime to truly talk about anything - but she had to dump several of her closest friends. Because she could feel their jealousy and it was like having a slimy grease ball sitting on her chest restricting her breathing. But what was truly awful was choking on her mother's disappointment in her. She knew she wasn't Dipper but she certainly wasn't perky enough to voluntarily join the cheer team. Plus some of them were mean to Dipper. She _had_ to get out of that house. Flopping into her old attic bed, an involuntary giggle slips when she finally notices how bedraggled Dipper looks. The goat - how old was that thing? - was once again chewing on his bookbag and the expression on Dipper's face was so _done_  that all the stress of the school year, all the stress of becoming a freak, it all went away just like that.

"What's up, hambones!"

Rocketing onto her feet, she all but tackles their resident handy-man and brand spanking new owner of the Mystery Shack in an infamous Mabel Hug™. His emotions are like summer, bright and flighty and she just wants to stay in the embrace but of course, she should have really been happy for the full hour of peace that she was even allowed. Because as soon as Dipper got his own greeting in - a boring little handshake - and Soos left to go get some pizza bagels, he turned to her and paused.

"Alright, Mabel. Out with it."

She actually choked on her spit. Or glitter. That was a possibility. But she could not get air into her lungs for a solid thirty seconds as she tried to figure out how to explain the Journal. Oh, she had it. It literally never left her side. But it was hers. Dipper had had his. But this was supposed to be hers and for a moment, she contemplated playing dumb. But she couldn't. She had promised.

"Promise me you won't tell anyone.Not even Ford or Stan."

Dipper actually looked taken aback by that but she remained steady until he finally raises his left hand,

"I swear on the Mystery Twins."

Pulling out the white book with its dogeared pages and the odd vanilla scent that followed it, she carefully hands it to Dipper. And the spell is broken. She didn't know where the wave of protectiveness had come from but this was her brother. Of course, she could trust him. Her brother's eyes grow comically wide and she can actually see the dangly thing in his throat as though he were about to scream but all that came out in some strangled, hoarse mockery of her brother's voice was,

"Where did you find this?"


	4. QUASI COSMOGYRAL

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper has some long-term issues - but Bill's back with a new trick: asking the Twins to save the town.

After the words had left him, he instantly needed to take them back.  
It was like those words had triggered something.   
Something big.  
The moment those words were in the air, the tension became palpable.   
An ethereal blue glow peered through the floorboards but Mabel continued to stare at him, her chocolate eyes nearly obsidian with shock.  
"You knew?"  
Her voice was brittle and he needed to explain to her about the dreams but he couldn't bring up Weirdmaggedon without bringing up Dippy Fresh and the floor was breaking apart and she wasn't moving and she was crying and he.   
Couldn't.   
Breathe.   
He's still reaching out to the empty space where his sister was when the ground caves beneath him too.   
He's Alice in the rabbit hole and his Wonderland contains Bill.   
But not Bill.   
"GRUNKLE STAN!"  
His great-uncle would never grin voluntarily and the way that Bill cracks one makes him glad to never have seen one.   
It's all gums and teeth in some kind of macrabe copy of a happy smile.   
"Pine Tree. Shooting Star. WELCOME TO THE PARTY, KIDS! -"  
Stan Cipher's - Mabel was the one who came up with the names, so sue him for using the K.I.S.S. method - little monologue is quickly interrupted by a groan of pain at Ford firing a blue light into his chest.   
"STAN!"  
Fear rips the terrified scream from their throats as they watch their grunkle fall limply to the floor.   
Only to eerily jerk back to life like a puppet on strings, that creepy smile still in place.   
"Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! Wow, Sixer! That kinda hurt! Do it again! Do it again!"  
It was like some deranged little kid with too much sugar had possessed his grunkle and then the flip switched.   
The smile became menacing and his eyes bled black and red and Ford flew into the wall next to the switch of the dismantled machine...   
Except the machine wasn't dismantled and it was fully repaired.   
It pulsed red and called for something deep in the recesses of his soul.   
_This_  was what he had been looking at in the dream.   
The dream had started after the psuedoBill had sent him headfirst into the dreamscape and always showed him the same thing.   
This machine pulsing red and hungry.   
A flash of the symbols.   
A gloved hand.   
Those white journals.   
Right before he woke up, there was always a girl's voice.   
"Save us. Save us."  
Melodic and haunting, he wishes that it was only her voice that followed him into reality.   
But when he woke up, two more things followed him.  
On his right hand, the symbol of Cipher - he looked it up - burned into the delicate skin; a bright red triangle.   
That wasn't what haunted him during the day though.   
The feel of tingling against his lips, the odd taste of vanilla and jasmine tea that lingered long after he had brushed his teeth   
-he had been kissed.   
And he felt like he had enjoyed it.   
And never before had the scent of vanilla been stronger than now.   
Now as Ford screamed out in pain.   
Now as Mabel fired off her grappling hook only to miss and be flung back beside him.   
Now as he ran after his possessed grunkle.   
Now as he heard himself distantly scream in pain.   
Now as his palm began to bleed.   
_Drip._  
 _Drip._  
 _Drip._

  
Bill

\- no -

Stan

\- no -

Bill lifts him off the ground by his throat and he can do nothing but feebly pull for air.   
Golden eyes lock onto his and that demented lifting of corners reappears and without looking away, he addresses Ford.   
"Hey, Sixer. D'ya remember Will?"  
He pauses for a long moment, the only audible thing Mabel trying to catch her breath, the only audible thing his heartbeat.   
"... No, I don't."  
The pause turns menacing but for a second, it's Stan's laugh that echoes.   
"Of course not."  
As though he could tell that Dipper's vision is going dark, he abruptly drops him onto the floor.   
"Let's make a deal, kid."  
He can't get enough air.   
Sweet, sweet, vanilla-scented air.   
But he could definitely get enough of the drama that went around Gravity Falls.   
"Why?"  
"That wasn't a no. So I'll stick with it, Pine Tree!"  
Suddenly he's serious.   
"I've got a few more plans for this place and I can't exactly do them if this place is destroyed."  
Again, against his own morals, he wants to groan.   
Why was it always them?  
"Is that a yes? Because I'd really hate to have to hurt Star over there."  
That settled things.   
Just.   
Like.   
That.   
"DIPPER, DON'T."  
Reaching for the blue flamed hand, he ignores Ford.   
"What do I need to do?"

 


	5. SHAM SUMMER

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> William "Bill" Cipher explains the daily life and trials of being a circus kid turned monster hunter as well as having to take care of an socially awkward twin sister.

* * *

Ah. 

Summer break.   
A time for relaxation; a time for leisure, recreation, and taking 'er easy... unless you were them.   
His name was William Cipher.   
And yes, he was about to blow chunks.   
Thanks for asking.   
The girl driving like a maniac was his twin sister, Wilimina.   
You probably had chills down your spine from their last name (or their matching first names) or just wondering what they were doing in a rickety golf cart near the middle of the woods fleeing a creature of unimaginative terror.   
Well, rest assured.   
Both of these things have a perfectly rational - and underused - explanation.   
Way back before the Dream Dorito had decided to go to Gravity Falls and wreck havoc on many, many lives, the Ciphers had been a carny family.   
They lived in a circus.   
He couldn't say that introducing himself as the lion tamer/acrobat/assistant ringleader didn't have its perks but it definitely set him apart from the normal everyday kids.   
Will reveled in her own oddity as he struggled with his, brandishing her titles - daredevil, magician, fire swallower, whatever she was that week - until the day of the accident.   
They had been visiting one of the many family friends when it happened.   
According to the official police report, there had been a freak accident with their refrigerator and when they got home, there had been ice everywhere.   
But Will wasn't as dumb as they thought she was and they both knew fact deep in their bones.   
That whatever had happened to their parents hadn't been an accident.   
And it hadn't been the fridge.   
That was what led them to their father's reclusive older brother,   
Jack Madigan.   
A self-proclaimed weirdo, monster-hunter and town-known conman, he explained what he could about their family history.   
Which wasn't much.   
Before mysteriously losing much of his memory and leaving them to record what they could discover about themselves... And Gravity Falls.   
It was this amazing, amazing gift discovering that Will didn't need to struggle with her words, she could record her thoughts as fast as she thought them and sketch - though she preferred the old-fashioned way - without lifting a hand.   
He could manipulate people - it wasn't like he liked it - merely ask a question and they'd answer it honestly and they'd give him whatever he wanted and sometimes he needed Will to stop him the way he stops her fires and sometimes he can break people.   
Hurt them - make them pay - sometimes the only thing stopping him from doing stupid things like punching Manny Mannington over there in the face was Will.   
Paying Susan for the Unicorn Will special, he makes his way back to the table, avoiding the hazards of the environment like dumb jocks 1-5, math turds and the new machine that he swore up and down was broken until he reached his twin.   
She was sleeping; her blue black hair happily having collected the plethora of most likely forgotten pens and pencils twisted round her neck as her arms overtake the table.   
"Will."  
Poking her deftly on the cheek, he springs back as she launches her fist upward in a reflex that he knew Jack still nursed bruises over.   
And he also knew that Jack had encouraged it.   
Even though the guy forgot his name every once in a while and stole his wallet every now and then, at his core, he was a good guy.   
Ignoring his sister's groans as she detached yet another sleep portrait from her face, he firmly hands her the mug and takes the drawing from her.   
Even asleep, she was an amazing artist.   
This time, the mousy boy was staring straight at the viewer - his eyes fierce and protective under the pine tree trucker hat as he shielded someone else from view.   
"Who do you think it is?"  
Tugging one of the many pens from its place in her hair, she absently clicks it before shrugging.   
"I wish I knew."  
Clicking on the top one last time to stick the nub out, she signs her name at the bottom lovingly.   
"Gah!"  
Mimicking each other's expressions of disgust, they quickly exchanged drinks.   
He enjoyed his coffee black with two sugars while the Unicorn Will was one-part jasmine tea, several parts sugar, milk and food coloring topped off with whipped cream and strawberries.   
It literally tasted like a unicorn.   
"How're y'all kids enjoying your food?"  
His mouth was stuffed with syrup and pancakes so he offered a thumbs up while Will, despite her knowledge of it no longer being the 50s, grins at Susan and hums out a quick,   
"We're just peachy! Thanks, Lazwell."  
"Wink! Just for that Will, I'mma go grab the apple pie!"  
"Wicked!"  
Susan over the years had developed a habit of announcing her left eye's action as she did it.   
He didn't know what he meant by that observation but he noticed it and he couldn't stop.   
"Bill, think we're going to have a case today?"  
Now she was placing the pen back in the blue-black curls - the sunset pink offsetting her cognac eyes and the black heart stamp-marks she had happily placed in the corners.   
He couldn't be happier they didn't have to go to the high school than right then.   
His sweet little sister would be torn apart.   
Even if she looked like a delinquent with their father's bomber jacket over her sunset orange dress and mismatched kneesocks and combat boots covered with metallic Sharpie when she couldn't find paper...   
She put her heart too much in things that didn't deserve it.   
And case in point, her face was slowly turning a pink that definitely clashed with her outfit so _he_ must be near -

Wren Corduroy. 

He didn't know what she saw in the older Corduroy sibling but he was happy that for the moment, Wren didn't reciprocate.   
He could deal with the sadness of a failed plan but he did not have a clue of how to deal with her heartbreak.   
And, he had no doubt, Wren would break her heart.   
Nabbing the bacon off her plate teasingly, he wins back her attention with a loud cry of his name and playful whack.   
"Eh. I think today'll be pretty boring."  
He was wrong.   
°  
The fighting off vampires part of their day was actually pretty short for them.   
It still took hours and he had gotten scratched by yet another crazy fan girl who had willingly flung herself into the arms of the undead poseurs but for once, they could just _be_.   
Don't misunderstand him - he actually enjoys the rush of saving their town and he knows for certain that Will feels the same.   
But they couldn't even go to a normal high school because of their abilities and if he had to deal with another fake smile from yet another yahoo calling them freaks of nature or monsters or whatever those ridiculous easy bake ovens decided to label them, he might just be what the town runs from next time.  
And he sort of wanted Will to move on to whatever was supposed to be normal for girls her age.   
Weren't girls supposed to have like seventy different crushes?   
Will just had Wren and even then, she wasn't ridiculously girly about it.  
She was more happy with him acknowledging her existence.   
Which was just sad.   
But it wasn't her fault that Wren was an idiot and probably went for girls - too nice a word for her - like Megan Pacifica.   
"Ew, look its the freaks."  
Speak of the devil and she shall appear wearing false Prada and blonde hair extensions.   
"I'm so glad that your brain cells finally developed enough to process sight, little fishy."  
There's practically enough condescension in Will's voice to coat his pancakes thicker than Megan's eyes but the girl still blinks stupidly and when they get up to leave, she's still blinking and it's actually kinda creepy.   
"Did I break Megan?"  
He's actually about to answer her when the door flies open and into her face with this gawd awful crunching noise.   
"OH MY GOD."  
"I thbink you broke by nose."  
He's helping Will up and about to help the guy when suddenly this blur of pink straight up tackles him into the floor.   
"DIPPER, ARE YOU OK?!"  
".. oh my God, Mabel."  
Thankfully she gets off him and he's able to finally groan out his dying words.   
"... My spleen."

 


	6. ERSATZ & EUNEIROPHOBIA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper meets the Ciphers, faints and introduces one of the reasons why he's not having a complete mental breakdown.

Quick!  
What's the best way to meet the girl of your (literal) dreams?  
If you chose 'punch her in the face with a door', congratulations!  
You are now Dipper Pines.  
Please end your suffering immediately.  
He didn't sign up for this.  
×  
She was holding a bag of something called PugPeas to her face and smirking at him once he had confirmed that he and Mabel were in fact, not, vampires.  
"Bill says that you hitting me in the face with a door was kind of like you hitting on me. Could you please send me a less painful message?"  
He doesn't know whether to scream or hit _himself_ with a door.  
Whoever the hell she was, she was easily cooler than his entire life story, and apparently fine with being hit in the face.  
And having to reset her nose.  
In fact, the only thing that had concerned her was whether or not they had been running from something.  
Which they had.  
Bill.  
But, her Bill, the one currently flirting with his twin sister and looked more like a misunderstood bad boy/boy band member from 2008, didn't even look menacing.  
SURE, he looked like he could probably break Dipper in half with his PINKY but he also had been on the floor for a good five minutes whining about his spleen before sitting up and looking at Mabel, then, he's not making this up, he says,  
"I would gladly give you my spleen if you gave me your heart."  
The girl from his dreams had merely looked at Bill and sighed,  
"The Cipher Soulmate."  
"What?"  
His sister had immediately hooked onto the word 'soulmate' and he had long since lost her to boy daze once more.  
He was about to ask the girl of his dreams to elaborate, this was before his knowledge of the fact that she was the girl of his dreams, then he would have used the air to ask her name, maybe where the hell they were that he could see Bill Cipher that gosh damn clearly, but then he didn't just see her face.  
No, he's not a believer.  
He actually took a breath of vanilla and jasmine and nose blood then had a mini-freak out because absofucking no way in hell was he becoming Cassandra.  
His dreams were not prophecies and there probably was a scientific explanation for this.  
There was a scientific explanation for everything except for Mabel.  
And why that kid's eyes were eerily like Bill's.  
"How did you lose to a door? Didn't I train you better?"  
As if having a 6'2 Santa Claus in a red leather trenchcoat scolding you for loosing to a door was a regular thing, she responds,  
"I lost to the boy behind the door. The door wasn't sentient. I was unguarded."  
'Unguarded'.  
Immediately after she had gone down, she had whipped out a knife from God knows where and almost stabbed him.  
He didn't want to know what 'guarded' was.  
The hooded, almost deranged, green eyes lock onto his and he could feel this Jack person digging into his soul, reading all his secrets and sins, stealing -  
"MY WALLET."  
"His wallet."  
The girl stood up and in a swift motion, threw the makeshift ice pack into the trash bin and stood next to Jack, looking over his wallet in interest.  
"Oh. You're a time traveler! Ace!"  
Her interest in him was inexplicable and it soothed the anxious pit in his stomach for a moment until she introduces herself.  
"I'm Will Cipher. And that's my twin brother, Bill."  
Cipher.  
The word burns through his ears as the voice of his dreams, Will, starts whispering in them.  
"Save us."  
"I think you should sit down..."  
"Save us."  
"Oh, no. Not another one."  
"Save us."  
"Make sure he doesn't hit his head, Bill. Will, your system is trash. Go find the smelling salts."  
He dully tried to sit down in the chair behind him but he missed and warm hands grab him and he can hear keening and it's too warm, too hot, it's scalding him.  
And there's vanilla.  
And a girl with warm alcoholic eyes and she's saying something and she's worried.  
And he's so tired.  
So tired.  
Just for a few seconds...  
He needs to sleep.  
×  
"It's alright, Dipper. Just breathe. In and out, in and out."  
He's in a boat and she's there with him.  
Or he's with her.  
He's somewhere at sea and even though there's nothing in the sky but pure emptiness he can feel the sun glaring at them.  
Her eyes are so warm he almost forgot how he gets here until she sighs.  
"Do I really make you that panicky?"  
He had fainted.  
Again.  
For the third time.  
"This is actually your fourth...But who's counting? Certainly not me."  
His daily dying pride aside, he had to know now, who was she?  
At the unspoken question - he's never been able to speak right in the dreams - she frowns in confusion, her eyes their normal glaze,  
"I'm Will."  
Yes, he knows that much.  
But this Will was ch-  
He couldn't mention that.  
It hurts the both of them if he mentioned things like that.  
This Will was sadder but smiled at him and trapped in this dream and this one was wearing a frilly monster of a dress with yellow bricks and white bows that only barely held back the things that held her trapped.  
That Will looked bored and aloof but her eyes beamed and giggled and worried for their owner.  
That Will wore a dress of sunshine with strangely inspirational kneesocks and marker-covered boots and an army jacket covered in random patches.  
Will - this Will - needed him to save her.  
"Not just me."  
Well, he needed more information!  
Where were they?!  
When were they?!  
Why was your last name Cipher of all things?  
Why?  
Why?  
Were you lying to me?  
Why me in the first place?  
Are you-  
"Dipper, I know you've got a lot of questions but I need you to trust me."  
She was suddenly looking at him clearly, focused on him,  
"You're in Gravity Falls. Except you're not."  
The boat disappears in a blink and suddenly they're in the Mystery Shack.  
She's still chained and in the dress but he's wearing a dress shirt and black vest and bolo like Gideon and she's looking directly past him.  
"There's a thing called string theory. I know you know what that is."  
Infinite universes with an infinite amount of slight differences.  
She smiled at him, the daze back in full force but she still spoke about the last thing she remembered.  
"So, Bill, there's a Gravity Falls if Nathaniel Northwest had, in fact, founded the town and the one that was founded by President Trembly."  
He was coming to a conclusion that he desperately didn't want.  
But he knew that there wasn't any other way to look at it.  
"Our Gravity Falls exists out of the time stream and is more susceptible to screw ups and such while the other one would probably be more susceptible and still exist in the time stream. You understand why the Pines keep disappearing randomly now, bro?"  
It's not his voice when he opens his mouth to speak,  
"Only you would give me a lecture on string theory when I asked about our friends coming to dinner."  
She rolls her eyes with a laugh,  
"You understand what I mean, Bill. Last one to the kitchen is an easy bake oven with ClayDoh!"  
His limbs immediately lurch after her but he catches himself in the mirror and stops.  
Bill Cipher had been human.  
He had loved his sister as much as Dipper loved Mabel.  
So why was the triangle leering at him when he should be able to see the human?  
No..  
"Timessss up. Pinnne Treeee. Waaake up."  
The triangle is melting from the mirror in a continuous ugly yellow gray and filling up the room with a black sludge.  
"Wake up."  
He can't move to the door in time.  
His feet sink into the slime and he can feel hands reaching up to drown him.  
He's just about to give in to the darkness when he's wholly and entirely aware of lips meeting his.  
Oxygen swells into his lungs and he can see the floor and Will's eyes are closed, a spot of the black sludge dripping off her cheek.  
There's nothing to say and everything in that moment but as he opens his mouth, the invisible light bulb shutters off with sparks and the pop of glass.  
They part easily and he can probably light the way out with his own burning cheeks.  
Vanilla.  
"Wake up, Dipper. You don't want Mabel to do it for you."  
"Wait-"  
He blinks against his will as the light slowly starts to pierce his dream.  
"Wake up."  
It's more insistent now.  
He blinks again.  
"No-"  
"Wake up. I'll be here, Dipper."  
He claws at nothing as he sits bolt right in his bed.  
_Always_  had been carved into the ceiling.  
The stench of Mabel's infamous wake-up cure quickly shakes him from his musing as he suppressed the urge to retch.  
What she put in this version he really, really didn't want to know but if it smelled worse than the rotten fish and eggs and milk, it was likely that he had to ask.  
Craning his head back up with an uncomfortable pop, the word is gone and instead sits an entire galaxy of painted stars.  
"Oh, good, you're awake."  
Dropping the bucket outside before kicking the door shut, she approached him.  
Mabel's voice is devoid of her normal warmth and enthusiasm and he knows what's she's about to say before the words come,  
"We need to talk."


End file.
